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1889: Samuel Rylands, the first hanged at Shepton Mallet

March 13th, 2019 Headsman

On this date in 1889, the already-venerable prison at Shepton Mallet — which dates to 1610 and was England’s oldest working jail until its closure in 2013 — began its illustrious era as an execution site.

Samuel Reyland/Ryland/Rylands (press accounts used all three variants) bludgeoned, slashed, and strangled to death 10-year-old Emma Jane Davies in Yeobridge, Somerset, on January 2nd of that same year. Some newsmen eagerly attributed to the Yeobridge Murderer a wish “to emulate the London tragedies,” i.e., the Ripper slayings of late 1888. If Rylands’s confession is to be believed, it might have traced instead to a brain injury.

From the Western Mail, Feb. 26, 1889.

Shepton Mallet would remain a site for civilian executions until 1926; it was also favored as the American military prison during World War II, and 18 U.S. military executions took place there.

On this day..

• 1979: Gen. Nader Jahanbani and eleven others - 2020
• 1663: Alexander Kennedy, forger of false bonds and writts - 2018
• 1601: Henry Cuffe, mingled interest - 2017
• 1951: Ants Kaljurand, Estonian Forest Brother - 2016
• 1569: Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, at the Battle of Jarnac - 2015
• 1493: Peter Dane, in the Sternberger Hostienschänderprozess - 2014
• 1996: Thomas Reckley, the first in Bahamas in 12 years - 2013
• 1956: Jesus Maria de Galindez - 2012
• 2005: A gay couple in Saudi Arabia - 2011
• 1985: Stephen Morin, serial killer convert - 2010
• 1858: Felice Orsini, Italian revolutionary - 2009
• D - 2009
• 1998: Bahram Khan, by his victim's brother - 2008

Entry Filed under: 19th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,England,Execution,Hanged,Milestones,Murder

Tags: 1880s, 1889, concussions, march 13, samuel reyland, samuel rylands, shepton mallet